Troy and I pick his sister (and the neighbor girl) up from middle school every day at 2 pm. The last bell technically rings at 2:35, but if you aren’t in line by 2? Well, you might as well forget about leaving the lot in a timely fashion because the further back you park in the lot the higher chance you have of getting trapped behind the 16 buses pulling out from in front of the school.

I am pretty sure I have spent at least two years of my life so far sitting in a car picking someone up from their education building (what Troy calls school).

Troy has the patience of pretty much any six year old meaning none and sitting in the truck with him for 35 minutes is the opposite of relaxing. He gets in the front seat with me while we are waiting and turns all the knobs and punches all the buttons and wants to go through the glove box.

So I bought a Doodle Time dry erase notebook and marker at the Target Dollar Spot (get there) and lives were changed. Or mostly when I start the truck once the girls get in, my wipers don’t come on, my radio isn’t turned up as loud as it will go, and my hazard lights aren’t blinking.

We started playing Tic Tac Toe and he pretty much wins every time we play. He’s like some sort of Tic Tac Toe (Asian) prodigy.

I asked him why he was so good at throwing down x’s and o’s and he said, “The ghost in your office taught me”.

(BURNS DOODLE TIME NOTEBOOK AND MARKER, PACKS UP STUFF, SELLS HOUSE. TELL MY MOTHER TO STOP LETTING TROY WATCH GHOST ADVENTURES.)